Greece's program for the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin has been reactivated by the government's migration ministry. The scheme had been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Greek migration minister, the first flights are expected "in the coming weeks."
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it has been forced to shut down a coronavirus isolation center for migrants on the Greek Aegean island of Lesbos. MSF said it closed the center after local authorities allegedly imposed fines and threatened with criminal charges.
Over 11,000 refugees in Greece are at risk of being evicted from their housing and cut off from government cash assistance, according to Doctors Without Borders.
There are currently 118 rescued migrants on board the Ocean Viking ship in the Mediterranean, the majority of them hail from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Eritrea. Some of those on board spoke to AFP, telling them about their experiences of slavery in Libya.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned in a statement that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has laid "bare failed politics of aid to help migrants stranded in Libya" and worsened conditions for them.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), together with the Roma 2 local healthcare authority and Médecins du Monde (MDM) have set up a telephone service run by doctors and cultural mediators to help meet the medical needs of Italians and foreigners in reception centers and makeshift settlements in the Italian capital.
Doctors Without Borders has ended a cooperation saving migrants stranded at sea after its partner suspended rescue missions due to the coronavirus. The NGO has accused the EU of using the outbreak to keep migrants away.
The aid agency Doctors Without Borders is extremely concerned about the threat that the new coronavirus presents to the overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. DW spoke with MSF's Florian Westphal.
The Norwegian Refugee Council has warned that the coronavirus could decimate refugee communities around the world if more measures are not put in place to tackle the issue for these vulnerable groups.
Marco Sandrone, the Lesbos field coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has denounced the dire situation on the island, likening it to a war zone. He also stressed that Moria was "too much" for children living there and called on the EU to evacuate people.
The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has urged Italian authorities to let NGO-run vessels carry out rescue operations without quarantining them in connection with the coronavirus emergency. "Putting rescue vessels in quarantine is like stopping an ambulance in the middle of an emergency," the organization said.
After weathering storms and saving shipwrecked migrants in the Mediterranean, the Ocean Viking is quarantined in Italy. DW’s Miodrag Soric documents the mission, the people saved and life on board a rescue vessel.